


Law of Babylon

by dratinigirl



Series: An Eye for An Eye [2]
Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Eye Trauma, Hospitalization, M/M, wires and tubes and shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 07:52:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2460608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dratinigirl/pseuds/dratinigirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Within the walls of Oval Tower, Clear became as broken as he'd made Aoba's body. Everything comes crashing down, and all that he can do is begin to piece their bodies back together again as best he can. </p>
<p>(Prequel to An Eye for An Eye, meant to be read after the fic itself. In which Clear comes to his senses and realizes what he's done in the happenings of his bad end.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Law of Babylon

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, just a warning, there is some very heavy shit in this. It describes Clear ripping his own eye out, Aoba's body and the state it was in when Clear started rebuilding him, and ties in the characters we didn't see in the fic. ;) Please enjoy- and if you're here and you haven't read An Eye for An Eye yet, this is kinda spoilery, so I suggest reading that first.

All was well. Or, well enough for Clear to be whistling a tune that echoed off of the walls along with his footsteps. The second anniversary of his time here with Aoba had just passed over, and he couldn’t have been more happy with the results that time had yielded for them both. He’d had his cluttered and broken mind fixed up by Toue, merciful of a master as he was. Clear very well could have been sentenced for the incinerator after his rebellion. But, his true master had been kind, and he allowed him to live here.

Living within the tower walls didn’t provide him with complete peace, however. He had to work for his place, providing what was mostly janitorial and kitchen work in place of newer models that were being prepped for unleashing their music on the world. His master wanted everyone to live peacefully, and though some sacrifice came with that wish, Clear didn’t dare question his will. It would be out of place for him to do so. Additionally, he’d become a target of ridicule for the other models to prey on. They didn’t feel like a human could- but they sure did a good job of pretending to get a sick thrill out of bullying him. ‘R-2E-054’ they called him, it was never Clear, never the name he wanted. The broken one, the one with the fake master, the one with the sex toy, the garbage. He wasn’t garbage. He had been given a second chance, after all.

Clear used his access to oval tower’s medical research facilities to benefit his ‘love’, if that’s what he was able to call him. Of course, now he knew for sure that his emotions were all triggered by simulations and electronic signals. A thing such as himself could not feel true love, or anything close to it. He couldn’t feel at all, in fact, and he reminded himself constantly as he had to go through the works of constantly feigning human emotion. By now it was second nature.

Aoba’s body, with his help, had blossomed into something gorgeous. His eyes were hollow, his arms and legs were nothing but stumps, unable to reach out and grope around his dark world. He was perfect as he could be. Inanimate, unfeeling, close to unliving as Clear himself. And, though he wouldn’t speak it, the android knew that he’d made Aoba happy this way.

As of now, his master’s body had to be hooked up to a series of wires and tubes to keep his heart beating and his brain functioning. It was fine that way, Clear knew, because he had tubes and wires that did the same thing on the inside. If Aoba had them on the outside, it was slightly less convenient, but it made him him all the more of an object. That was wonderful. Every time he visited, he stroked the plastic IV and the oxygen mask, admiring the blindfold that covered the man’s hollow eyes. He always thought: how gorgeous, how lovely, and that this thing was his own.

The door to Aoba’s cell was fast approaching as he walked towards it, the series of bars familiar after all of the times he’d gone to them. They stuck out amongst the others, like they had some kind of marking that only Clear could pick out. The slow, gentle beeps that accompanied Aoba’s heart monitor floated out towards him, growing louder with every step that he took. And then, just as a beep echoed off of the bleached walls, the android noticed something off. He stopped at the cell door, noting how it was inched open on the bottom.

His eyes shot up, and he opened the door. Nobody was allowed to be here with Aoba but himself- he feared that maybe the other alpha had come to pry at him. But, what he saw was certainly not an alpha. At first he mistook the person for a skeleton, and the bone print on his pants only furthered the effect. His body was bent over Aoba’s, so close that his face was hovering just above his master’s.

Clear darted over to them. He didn’t know this person. They had come to hurt Aoba, surely they had, and something like a need to protect his master flared up inside of him. Probably a preprogrammed trait, but no less fierce as he grabbed the person’s arm. “What are you doing here?! Nobody is supposed to come down here!” He pulled at his arm, and effortlessly he yanked the man’s frail body.

He continued to hold him still, glaring. But the stranger’s eyes were downcast, hidden by the brim of a hat. Clear wondered if he hadn’t broken him, weak and frail as his living body was. But, a rattling sound came drifting out of the intruder’s mouth and into his ears.

“...You did this then?” He asked. “All of this time, I’d been waiting to find him so that I could use my eyes to help him...”

Clear felt simulated anger well up in his chest. “There’s nothing wrong with him!” He belted at the person in his grasp, shaking them. “Aoba-san is perfect, don’t you ever try to touch him agai-”

The person’s head snapped upwards, and Clear stopped completely. He immediately let go, and he felt something writhing inside of him. In his brain, something was crawling, eating at him, and the person’s eyes were making it alive. Then, he felt like a padlock wrapped around the very essence of his entire being. He choked, falling to the knees of the stranger.

As soon as the contact between their eyes was disconnected, the worming feeling stopped, but there was an acidic feeling throughout his entire body. His brain seemed to distort everything around him for a moment, and he was confused. But he knew one thing for certain, this person standing in front of him was his master. Another one, he could hardly believe it! But that’s what he was, for sure. His eyes registered him in the android’s mind as being another master. This one was like Aoba, however, with the power of scrap in his blood.

“Master... I’m sorry. I didn’t know who you were.” He apologized. “Forgive me for hurting you. What... What was I doing again?” Clear stumbled, dizzy. “Everything is fuzzy... I’m in Oval Tower, but why? I’m supposed to be at home, but I’m not, because Aoba-san came here with me and-”

Clear felt like every function in his body had stopped.      

His head turned slowly towards the bed behind him, eyes following tubes and wires along the floor. There was a dark space beneath the bed, leading up to off-white sheets, and finally to something that could have been considered even paler than them. Bones jutted from the surface of it, metal locks just barely fitting onto limbs that had shrunken down to be too small for them anymore. The network of wires bundled at the head of the body, tangled with the blue hair splayed everywhere.

He stood up, ignoring the master that had revealed himself to him. Something that he’d done had counteracted the programming that Toue had worked over into his mind. It left guilt. Immense, shattering guiltiness and self-loathing. As he stepped over to Aoba’s body, hanging by a thread onto life, he wanted to vomit. He needed to vomit so badly, that he choked, and gagged, and saliva dribbled out of his mouth to the point where it pooled on the stained sheets. Clear had no ability to vomit, only to stand there and let the muscles in his throat convulse.

“Aoba-san...” He wheezed. Clear grabbed the man by his shoulders, shaking him. “Aoba-san, wake up! Aoba-san, listen to me, please, we have to... Aoba-san...” His gasps turned into sobs. “Oh my god...” He heaved out the words, burying his face into his hands.

How could he, the android asked himself. How could he have done this, why would he have turned the person he cherished most into something so horrendous, a monster if anything else to the world. The screams of agony echoed in his head as hollow air echoed out of the same lungs that had made them. The blood dripping onto the floor, then pouring, flooding the drains... And he’d smiled. He’d smiled, and he’d been so happy with the way that the bone looked after it had been cracked, with the sight of meat as it was covered by gauze and chains.

His breath had started to pick up again. Clear’s mind snapped into a secondary state of panic. He pushed on the bed, flying over to the machines that kept Aoba’s body alive. If the human’s  brain was even still fully functional, he had no idea. Frantically he pressed buttons and read numbers. His breath was coming out in harsh pants, and sweat dripped into his clothing. “No, this is wrong- he’s going to die like this...!” He panted. Clear was rushing about, frantically changing amounts and dosages that would keep Aoba’s body alive, where he’d been allowing it to slowly die.

Eventually, the panic set so deep into him that he jarred up, stalling completely save for the quiver of his mouth and the tears that rolled out of his eyes. It was all that he could do just to breathe. But, he managed to turn his head, looking at the person who’d triggered his snap back into reality. He sobbed again, holding onto the wall to support himself.

“I don’t know what to do...!” He drawled out between his sobs, as if this person could help him. They stood on opposite sides of the bed, and Clear wondered suddenly if this person wasn’t the angel of death, a being that had stolen someone precious to him long ago. He wiped his face, rubbing snot and tears all over his sleeve. “Don’t take Aoba-san away, I can’t let him die now.” He pleaded, ready to grovel at this person’s feet if he asked it. But, his expression did not change, looking across at Clear with his onyx eyes.

“You’re an alpha, yes?” His soft, faded voice drifted from across the bed. Clear nodded quickly, answering to anything this Master wanted. “He’s not completely gone, not just yet... If you want to save him, there’s something you can do. But you have to listen carefully, because the next time you see me, it can only be when you’re ready to escape this place.”

Clear took in every fragile word of the skeletal being, nodding his head silently. The person continued, his eyes cast down at Aoba’s poor form. “You can build them back. It will be difficult, but your kind was designed to be compatible enough with human beings that even limbs and organs can be exchanged. But, I don’t have much time left... For two years I’ve been waiting for this chance to come here, and I’ve just barely been hanging on myself. Go to the facility where Toue is constructing more of you. There, you can take parts to use, if you do it gradually. Then, he’ll have some chance of being able to live again...” The person trailed off. “If he should wake back up, then he may have a chance. As he is, there’s nothing that I can do. It’ll be up to you to save him.”

Clear nodded continually, finally able to separate himself from the wall and support his own weight on both legs. “Yes... Yes, I’ll do it. If I can make Aoba-san better again, I’ll do anything!” He proclaimed, though his voice rattled on with every breath.

“Then, when you’re ready, stow him away inside of something that you can carry out. To reach me, all you have to do is take this.” The man’s arm shook as he reached up and pulled something out from underneath his hat. It was a coil- a very basic one, at that. Only capable of in and out calls, audio only, something that likely wouldn’t have a trackable signal. Clear took it in his hands, holding it gingerly. “It only has one number registered inside... When you’re ready, I’ll make sure that the tower’s systems begin to fail, and it’ll fall. Make it out with Aoba in that time, and he may be safe.”

Clear gripped the coil in his palm, nodding firmly. “Yes. I’ll do it.” He stated, determination heavy in his tearful eyes.

He looked past the person as footsteps came down the hall. He jumped, standing closely over the bed where Aoba’s body lay hooked up to the endless wires. But the skeletal body didn’t flinch, only turning towards the cell door. Two forms appeared at the end of the cell. They looked like twins, but one was considerably more stocky than the other, and his smaller counterpart wore glasses.

“It’s time to go. If you’ve managed to do anything to him, it will have to be enough. Someone is going to notice that you’re missing.” Clear heard the one with glasses say. He thought that somewhere along the line, he’d said the person’s name, but the sound of his own heartbeat drowned it out. The taller one turned his eyes towards him, and Clear stiffened.

“What about that alpha, back there? He’s going to report you to the old coot, isn’t he?” He asked, looking towards the frail man in front of him. “I can get rid of him.”

Clear watched black hair swish back and forth, shaking his head no. “That’s not needed. He’s going to be of great help, actually.”

The one with glasses nodded. “If it’s for Aoba-san. He is our idol, after all. If anything were to happen to him, then we wouldn’t be very happy. It took us all this time to find out where Toue’s had him stashed away, after all. But he’s just in too rough of shape for us to have any fun with him.... However, it’s not very amusing to know that he’s going to shrivel and die. He can be healed, can’t he?” His eyes flickered over to Aoba’s body, but they never once glanced in Clear’s direction.

“Yes. The alpha’s going to do it for me, there’s no way that I can use my power for Aoba now.” He stepped over to the pair, who took him and supported his shaky steps. Clear never saw his new master’s eyes again, only the trio fading away into the blinding light of the hallway. The cell door was left open, and the android standing over the body of the thing he’d turned Aoba into.

It was all that he could do to change him back.

  
  


One week had passed. Clear had been sneaking off at any possible moment to the alpha production facility, weaving between unactivated bodies, snatching and breaking away parts. None of them were complete- they lacked hair, eyes, tongues, and various other body parts. Those needed fine attention, and would be installed individually by scientists as these bodies were inspected for being finalized. Then, they were drafted into Toue’s android battalion, their voices ready to fry the brains of the world.

He escaped with parts, wracking his brain for information on the function and repair of his own body- preprogrammed into his consciousness from his moment of creation. It was going more slowly than he would have liked, but he set out every little silicone tube and bolt that he could slip into his pockets. Nobody questioned the janitor alpha anyway. The broken one was just wandering about like normal, he was mad, he didn’t know where he was going and he needed to be tossed out. He took the cackles of his peers in stride, fingering whatever he’d snatched away in his pocket.

Aoba’s body was still in a similar state to what it had been before. Still weak, teetering on the verge of life and death. Death was still something that Clear didn’t fully understand, but he wanted anything but for Aoba to leave this world like his grandfather. His grandfather had been old, and there was some justification in his death, he understood well the logic that all humans ‘shut down’ eventually. But, Aoba-san wasn’t old. He was just about to turn twenty-five in a few weeks in fact. Humans weren’t meant to die at that age.

Clear darted into his cell, blood pumping fast in his veins. Finally, he’d snatched the last and largest part that he needed to begin working- if only on one arm. He walked over to the bed, now cleaned and freshened, even if the occupant couldn’t tell the difference. He looked down at the body. The one he’d starved, mutilated, raped. Beyond this required for reconstruction, Clear vowed never to touch this body again. He’d broken it to where it may not work again, even with repair.

“Alright, Aoba-san. Let’s begin.”

  
  


Two weeks had passed by now. Clear had no need for sleep, so working endlessly wouldn’t tire him out. Nobody had come calling for him, so he remained, working himself to the core. He slaved over Aoba’s body every second of the day, piecing together the intricate parts. He only left to steal away more, in the depth of night, when no security guard would question one of Toue’s loyal servants. Why did they need to question something that was heartless?

By this stage, his limbs were almost complete. All he needed was to find matching samples of skin to go with him- then he would have to continue to heal on the IV and other life support systems for a week. His condition was stabilizing with the increased quality of care, but he wasn’t yet to the point where he could be disconnected from the machinery. Clear was feeling increasingly satisfied with his work. The nerves were connected, so if Aoba were to wake, he would be able to move his bare limbs about. He was still missing three fingers, half of a foot, and a toe on the other, but they would certainly move.

However, as he attached said missing toe, a thought occurred to him.

He had no access to eyes.

 

Three weeks. All limbs were complete, covered in flesh, and melding to Aoba’s body. Black stitches jutted out, reddened in the real flesh, and poking out of the latex that coated the metal.

Clear stared down, a scalpel glimmering under his fingers. Then, he turned his eyes to peer  at the hand mirror he’d snatched away from a human guard. He hadn’t looked into it yet- he was afraid to. His own face was a horror he’d never seen. From what he understood, he looked just like the other alpha... But then, he knew that he looked different as well. Different how? Was the metal in his face twisted? His nose crooked and bent out of shape? His teeth elongated and yellowed like a rat’s? His hands shook, one holding the surgical blade, and the other shaking with the mirror. He didn’t know which one inspired more fear inside of him.

He bit down on his lip, scrunched both of his eyes closed, and turned the mirror over. Clear slowly opened his eyes, staring down at the reflection of his own face. He blinked, taking it in, touching his cheeks and his nose and pulling at his earlobes. He fell back into the memory of another hand on his face, touching him, promising him that everything was fine. His eyes, his nose, his mouth, everything was fine. And he’d believed him. Why should he think that he’d been lying now?

Right. Aoba had never seen him after he’d turned into a monster. He’d been the one to make sure of that.

Clear gripped the scalpel in his hand, staring intently at his own rotten face. He raised the knife up to his left eye. It had never been touched in the damaging of his keylock, so it was still fine. The right, however, had been repaired. He didn’t want complications to come about later on. So he kept that one, and watched the shaking scalpel dig into the socket of the other.

He screamed. He cried. It hurt, it hurt thousands of times more than stabbing his keylock had hurt. Fake blood gushed from his eye socket, soiling his white clothing and the bleached bed sheets as well. But he continued to cut his own eye out of the socket, moving between his cries to sever the wires cleanly as possible. Error messages flared in his brain, but he pushed them back and pressed his red tears onto his cheek.

He’d done this to Aoba, he thought between his guttural shrieks. He’d done this to Aoba twice. One eye was not enough. Replacing his limbs was not enough. Nothing was enough, it would never be enough. But he had to do this, if anything.

Finally, after twenty minutes at least of searing agony, the eye came loose. He’d lost vision in it after two minutes. Now, the ball stared back at him from in his palm, dripping with blood. Clear grinned, stroking it with an almost loving touch. Aoba would see again. If anything, he would see. He turned to the man, shivering as he was.

“Aoba-san... This is so wonderful. You’re going to be able to open your eyes...!”

If only he would wake up.

  
  


Four weeks. Exactly one month since he’d begun. Aoba’s body was weak, but it could function on it’s own. Well, he would have to feed and hydrate him through tubes still, but it could be done manually. His cognitive function had improved, and maybe, just maybe, he would wake up again soon. But there was no time to wait. Clear had every intention of following the instructions of that person. He’d spent the day sneaking his janitor’s cart to this place, lining it with blankets, and gently placing Aoba’s body inside. His pockets and the spare compartments of the cart were filled to the brim with supplies he’d need. Medicine, tubes, catheters, anything that he might need in case it was a long time before Aoba woke.

An eye patch, as well. He hadn’t been able to show his face since he’d removed his own eye, but it had healed up nicely inside of Aoba’s skull. He’d been forced to lock it in place with a piece of equipment for several days, continually rehydrating it with eye drops. But, when he was satisfied that it had healed over and connected properly, it moved and functioned like a normal eye. Ten hours of surgery hadn’t gone to waste, and neither had his own eye.

Clear held the coil that he’d been given firm in his hand. This was it. As far as he knew, it was one mad dash from here to the nearest exit, then he and Aoba would be free. The android took a deep breath, and pressed the call button to the single contact located inside.

It rang for no more than five seconds. “It’s time then... Listen, I’m going to initiate the system shut down in three minutes. I want you to take Aoba upstairs and leave through exit 13B. If there are guards there, you’ll be allowed through. But first, I need you to go to the laundry facility for the alpha. Do it quickly- there will be someone there waiting to give something to you.”

Clear could hear the gentle voice of that person, along with various beeps on the other end of the line. With haste, he tied the coil around his wrist, and raced off with the cart towards the laundry room. It was only a floor above, so he risked the elevator to take Aoba’s body up. There was only continuous beeping on the other side of the line, but the person remained there, so he didn’t start to panic yet.

The elevator ride was short, and he rushed out with the cart as soon as the doors split wide enough apart. Clear darted into the laundry room, and was grabbed by a hand on each arm. He panicked at first, though he was restrained enough to be unable to escape.

“It’s the right one, let him go.” A voice came from beside him. Clear was released, and he whipped around to a pair of bodies standing behind it. It was the pair that had come after the skeleton boy to take him away from Aoba’s cell.

Clear didn’t have time to question them as something was placed in his hands. A dirtied alpha’s uniform, with something black poking out from inside. Clear lifted a sleeve, and blinked.

“Ah- it’s Ren-san!” He exclaimed, pulling the tiny allmate out of the mess. He held the tiny machine in his arms, stroking his unactivated body.

“Yes. Be sure that he escapes as well. Ren is very, very special to Aoba, and you musn’t let the two of them part, no matter what. It may be the key to him waking again. He hasn’t been activated in two years, but you must wake him again immediately when you find some place safe.” The voice told him.

Clear didn’t fully understand how the allmate had such a deep connection with Aoba, he only understood that they were partners. But if this person told him that it might help Aoba wake up again, he would protect the allmate just as well as the human. “Alright. I will.”

“Okay. You have one more minute- go back to the elevator, and take it to the main floor. It will work until you get there.” The stranger instructed.

The android turned to address the pair that had transported Ren’s body, but they were already on the way out. Clear followed after, watching them turn to move further into the tower. “Wait, you’re going the wrong way!” He called out. Both of them stopped, and Clear clutched Ren closer to him. “The tower’s supposed to start coming down soon, if you go that way, you might not make it out in time.”

The pair’s eyes cross to meet each other for a moment, and the one with glasses moved to speak. “There’s someone that we’d like to take with us. Aoba-san isn’t going to be available for us to play with anymore, if we don’t save the other one, the two of us won’t have anyone left to have fun with.”

The stocky one nodded. “It’s our job to look after him anyway.”

“Right.” Glasses agreed. “Now, we had better go before it’s too late.” He turned and started in the other direction, his counterpart right at his side.

“Bye-bye!” He called, and they disappeared behind a corner.  

The voice on the other end of the coil sighed. “Those two.... Don’t worry about them. Keep moving.”

Clear was already on the way, Ren tucked inside with Aoba’s body where it would be hidden, and hopefully safe. He stepped inside of the elevator, watching the floor numbers go by. This was it. Aoba’s freedom rest on this moment. He thought over the route between the elevator and the requested exit numerous times, planning out every single step.

He poked the coil one last time. “Master... Are you there?” He asked.

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Thank you. For helping Aoba-san.”

“It’s fine. Thank yourself, and please. Take good care of my brot-”

Click. Nothing.

He heard the sirens begin halfway between the first basement floor and the main floor. For a moment the man worried that he’d been too late, but the elevator held on. It opened to reveal a mad scramble of people evacuating the building, screens flashing everywhere to reveal the haunting, gentle face of the master he’d never known. He wished that he could have gotten a listen at those final words before they were disconnected from each other. He gazed into those eyes for a moment, and he felt something worming in his brain, telling him to flee. He took off into the flurry of panicked humans, able to move them out of the way with his cart as he raced across the halls with it.

He turned one last corner, nearly tipping Aoba’s container over, and with a cry he blasted through the exit. Clear kept running until something made him stop, hitting a wall far away from the tower. He turned back, watching it crumble, roaring and screaming in its sudden death. Gazing at it for a moment, Clear turned to look inside the cart. Aoba was still inside, breathing calmly, Ren balled up on top of his chest. The android laughed under his breath.

“We’re gonna go home, Aoba-san...”

 

It was the next morning by the time that he made it back home, back to the dump where he’d spent his days with his grandfather. He had to carry Ren on top of the cart, as Aoba had soiled himself in the long wait to evacuate platinum jail. Clear took him inside, surprised to find the water and electric still functional, and gave him a warm bath. He sponged over the body, looking at his surroundings in pure disbelief. He was home. Aoba was home with him.

He lifted and dried the man’s body, fragile as it was between the inorganic parts. Clear took him upstairs, lay him in bed, and returned downstairs. Ren was still curled up on the couch, still sleeping after all this time. How was he going to explain himself? He could tell nothing but the truth, and Ren would hate him for it. Rightfully so, he supposed as he took the ball of fluff upstairs.

Clear sat down beside Aoba, dust falling out from underneath the aged wooden chair. He sat the allmate in his lap, pressing his thumb down on the back of his neck until he found a button. Immediately, the allmate started up, looking around.

“Clear... What’s going on?” He asked, deep voice rumbling from his tiny body. “Where are we now? And where’s Aoba? Have you two succeeded in escaping the tower yet? Additionally, your eye. What happened to it?” The tiny machine interrogated him. Clear looked down at him with a hollow expression.

“Ren-san... It’s been a long time.” He muttered.

“A long time? Clear, where’s Aoba?” Ren questioned again. Clear turned him over to face his partner, laying comatose on the bed. Ren jarred, breaking free of the android’s grasp to leap onto the mattress. “Aoba!” He cried. Ren stood next to his owner for a second, evaluating him. Then, he relaxed, ears falling down to the side of his head in a depressed gesture. “Aoba... He’s comatose.”

“Yes. He may or may not wake up.” Clear explained. He watched the allmate dart about the other man’s body, examining the limbs that had been replaced in shock.

“These are robotic.” The canine model stated. “Like yours, correct? Why? What happened?” He practically whined those words, so distressed and lost that Clear feared he may shut down.

There was nothing to say but the truth. “It was me.” He stated. Ren stopped, his eyes wide as they gawked at him in the dawn light. “Aoba-san and I were captured. They did countless experiments on him, and at the same time, I was reprogrammed to act less human than I usually do. I... I cut out his eyes, Ren-san.” He gulped. “Then, I cut off his arms. One at a time. Then his legs. I had planned for his vocal chords as well.”

Ren was silent. He had turned from Clear, staring at his owner’s sick, thin face. “How is he like this...?”

Clear fidgeted. He didn’t know why, but suddenly, his mind was hazy. He’d seen something leaving platinum jail, all over the screens. What was it again? An error message, yes. What happened when he came to his senses? Ah- a hand had slipped during a maintenance check, of course. “The programming failed. I realized what I was doing to Aoba-san... I stole parts from a manufacturing plant, and built them onto him. Our parts are so close to a human’s, we can actually mix ours into a human body. But, as you can see... Eyes were hard to come across.” He explained. “Ren-san... I’m so sorry. I did what I could.”

The allmate whipped around to face him. Clear jolted back, looking into the eyes of the machine, alive and scowling. Brimming with hate and bitterness, threatening to eat through him like acid.

Clear didn’t say another word. He broke eye contact with the other machine, leaving the room. Ren needed his space, his time alone with Aoba, and his time to think. Meanwhile, Clear took to the couch downstairs. The android supported his head in his hands, nose dug between his palms. There was something that came to his mind, however. Something lingering deep within his pocket that he’d never thought to remove. It felt natural in there, so he’d kept it, through it all.

With a sigh, he slipped on his mask.

 

He and the allmate didn’t speak. The pup would leave the room when Clear came to tend to Aoba’s sleeping body, avoiding his presence like some kind of disease. Understandably so, Ren probably hated him for all he’d done to his master.

The android wore his mask over his face, and it felt unusually heavy after such a long time gone without it. His entire body was strained- for a month he’d deprived himself of sleep and nutrients, and now his body was screaming for him to relax. But there was no way that he could, not with Aoba in the state that he was. He had to wake up soon, or die the way that he was. He couldn’t be fed and hydrated this way for as long as Clear had thought. If this kept on for more than a week, Aoba’s body would need hospitalization. He didn’t want him to be poked and prodded at like that, however, so he held on hoping that he may wake at any moment.

Clear’s head bobbed up and down. He was displaying symptoms of extreme drowsiness, to the point where his body was trying to go into an emergency sleep mode. But he kept the need for rest choked down, moving about the lower floor of the house. He’d taken to preparing food for himself at the very least; mindlessly stirring soup in a pot. His eye lazily followed the circular movement of his hand and the spoon in it, unknowningly hypnotizing himself to increased sleepiness.

His hand released the spoon, leaving it in the pot to sit. Clear felt his body move more or less on its own, and in seconds he lay with his back on the age linoleum, staring up at the ceiling.

In the seconds before his brain decided to put itself into sleep mode, Clear’s thoughts ran through his head like bees. What was the point of this all? Why was he here, why did he even exist, why did he have feelings and emotions so different from the other alpha? What had that thing been that Aoba had entered, that warm, glowing place? Did anything about his existence have any meaning, or was he going to sit here in a pile of dust and shut down- never having had more importance to the world than having been a tool?

He wanted to die.

Tears bubble out of his eye. He’d never thought that before, he’d always been so afraid of death. But here he sat, sprawled out on his back, wishing that angel of death would come here and stab him through the head. But, there was no angel of death for people like him, for things and tools.

Clear pulled himself off the floor, his own will overriding the shutdown system. His eye rolled in its socket to stare at the knife block on the counter. He reached out, pulling a blade from the wooden casing, the steel flickering in the light. The android leaned over the counter, wanting again to vomit as he gazed into his own reflection within the metal. The pot boiled over on the stove, fluid splashing onto the oven and the floor, the spoon swirling on its own. Clear’s brain was a maddening chorus of thoughts and sounds, and he lifted the knife to the crown of his head with both hands, never closing his eye.

“...Aoba! Aoba!”

Clear dropped the knife. It clattered to the floor, and his too-sensitive ears heard a pair of voices drifting from the stairs. A pair. It was small and it was weak, but Aoba’s voice was there, hanging in the atmosphere.

The android’s brain went blank. His lips burst into a grin behind his mask, and his body was pulled towards the noise. All thoughts of exhaustion and death left him, the knife left behind on the kitchen floor. All that mattered now was Aoba.

Aoba, who he’d destroyed.

Aoba, who he’d tortured.

Aoba, who he’d raped.

Who he loved.

Clear’s elation turned into dread, and his feather light steps were weighed down by lead as he climbed the last step on the staircase. He took a deep breath, extending his gloved hand to the handle of the bedroom.

The door creaked open, and his eyes met. 

**Author's Note:**

> And THIS folks, finally concludes AEFAE. Again, thank you so much for all of this. I'm indebted to all of you lovely readers for getting me through. I hope this filled up some holes for you, and I hope vitri fans got a kick as well. Thank you.


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